Abstract

As focus of exegetical attention, the Acts of the Apostles began very unpromisingly with Chrysostom an exception, although a case can be made that Christian church histories were the true receivers’ of Acts. This makes the late medieval and early modern commentaries on Acts even more worthy of attention. Most of the first millennium commentaries considered by Müller-Abels do not put those of the second-millennium in the shade. Lyra is representative of those who were most interested in the content of the Apostolic preaching with sensitivity for the gradual lessening of the Jewish Law in the Church. Justus Jonas is similar. However the Reformation and post-Reformation commentaries show how apostolic authority is considered to be biblical, conciliar and harmonious – and this from Salmerón as much as Bullinger, even if Lorinus promotes Papalism (against Calvin for whom James was just the moderator) and the importance of external sacraments and works, with “God working through history ”prominent in the Catholic authors.